Aspiring Krakens: James van Riemsdyk

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty ImagesAs the Flyers prepare for the offseason to get busy, they are now officially less than a month away from the summer’s first major off-ice event: the Seattle Kraken’s Expansion Draft. Set to take place on July 21, the NHL’s 32nd team will select its initial roster like Vegas did four years earlier.

For an initial read on the rules for Seattle’s draft, and how the Flyers should be prepared to handle it, you can read this from March of last year. Shockingly little has changed in terms of the Flyers’ expansion outlook since then, other than the fact that Scott Laughton’s contract extension makes him a likely protected piece for the Flyers and as such takes him…